French Tourists Visa to Extend Europe Stay

[Penny13]

Has anyone had experience of getting a French Tourist visa for six months and using it to extend your stay in Europe.

 

[marchie]

Has anyone had experience of getting a French Tourist visa for six months and using it to extend your stay in Europe.

There have been a couple of articles on here, but the flow was disrupted by the pandemic from both motorhomers and the French Government resources, as far as I can remember

In principle. IIRC, it's quite straightforward, requiring a fee of about €70 [please check this], and proof of funds for the duration of your stay [unresolved questions about whether the daily amount to qualify as self supporting could include next month's pension/salary if you can prove that the income is regular, rather than having €x thousand in the Bank at the outset], BUT also needing a permanent address in France, which rather kills motorhome touring! Can't remember any more, bit other Members may have more details. Most seem to have accepted the 90/180 Days, or be married to someone with an EU Passport ... Elaine's Irish Passport works for both of us [tested on return from Dieppe in late August 2022, 'Congratulations, sir, you have passed your test!', as the French Border Guard expressed it!]

Steve

EDIT PS There is also a need to show adequate Travel Insurance to obtain the Visa. The underpinning principle seems to be 'We don't want to be a burden on the French system if things go wrong', hence the money/insurance angle

 

[Penny13]

It seems non French residents are getting tourist visas for France and using them to extend the 90 day rule.
In fact one forum chat even suggest 6 month visa in France then travelling onward to Spain for the allowed 3 months.
I was throwing it out there to see if anyone has any experience of this ?

 

[marchie]

It seems non French residents are getting tourist visas for France and using them to extend the 90 day rule.
In fact one forum chat even suggest 6 month visa in France then travelling onward to Spain for the allowed 3 months.
I was throwing it out there to see if anyone has any experience of this ?

IIRC, the 6 month Visa states that the 90 days doesn't count, so that would fit with the carry forward of the 90 days to Spain, or any other Schengen Zone State. I've edited my first reply #2 to mention travel insurance needs. I think @Jo001 may have started the Visa possibility, but again, this is from a fading memory ...

Steve

 

[El radge]

IIRC, the 6 month Visa states that the 90 days doesn't count, so that would fit with the carry forward of the 90 days to Spain, or any other Schengen Zone State. I've edited my first reply #2 to mention travel insurance needs. I think @Jo001 may have started the Visa possibility, but again, this is from a fading memory ...

Steve

barryd ?

 

[Jo001]

I think @Jo001 may have started the Visa possibility

No, not me. Mr 001 gets cabin fever at around 45 days so if I want to stay any longer, I need to rely on his appalling sense of direction to convince him we really are making our way home ...

 

[marchie]

No, not me. Mr 001 gets cabin fever at around 45 days so if I want to stay any longer, I need to rely on his appalling sense of direction to convince him we really are making our way home ...

Sorry, Jo, I did say my memory was failing! I may have confused myself with your post about the funds level check, but that may also be a false memory!

Steve

 

[Jo001]

Sorry, Jo, I did say my memory was failing! I may have confused myself with your post about the funds level check, but that may also be a false memory!

Steve

That was definitely us. Going into the Netherlands, because we didn't have our return crossing booked, they wanted proof of however many euros per person X 90 nights.

 

[Drover]

It seems non French residents are getting tourist visas for France and using them to extend the 90 day rule.
In fact one forum chat even suggest 6 month visa in France then travelling onward to Spain for the allowed 3 months.
I was throwing it out there to see if anyone has any experience of this ?

There's a couple on chausson owners club that have just had their second 6 month visa. They spent 10 months last year in europe.
From memory it was £120

 

[GMJ]

barryd ?

Yes it was Barry IIRC. Hopefully he'll be along soon and can post a link to his thread on the subject. At the time I think the process was quite clunky but may well have improved since then.

 

[Penny13]

There's a couple on chausson owners club that have just had their second 6 month visa. They spent 10 months last year in europe.
From memory it was £120

Ron is looking we own a Chausoon and are in the FB club.

 

[Drover]

Ron is looking we own a Chausoon and are in the FB club.

This is the latest one, not the one I quoted. Just search french visa.
As a member you should see it
i removed link as it would not work
you should see posts from Mike Padfield as well as this one, there are links on site for correct forms.
hope this helps.

 

[Mobilvetta]

I can't understand why Spain doesn't do this, they must be loosing out big time. Me and the wife would qualify for residentia status in Spain if we applied, but I'm not prepared to go down this route because of there aggressive tax regime and inheritance taxes. Even my cousin who has his old age pension and his works pension is paying more tax here than when his pension was taxed in the UK.

 

[marchie]

I can't understand why Spain doesn't do this, they must be loosing out big time. Me and the wife would qualify for residentia status in Spain if we applied, but I'm not prepared to go down this route because of there aggressive tax regime and inheritance taxes. Even my cousin who has his old age pension and his works pension is paying more tax here than when his pension was taxed in the UK.

Spain has something like 25000 Motorhomers visiting each Winter [IIRC these figures are around the time of Brexit] and the net income after maintaining the Border Guards and other infrastructure is not that great. In contrast, the package holidays, which is where Spain & Portugal said 5 years ago that they would install Fast Lanes for Brits in Passport Control, have people arriving by the [literal] planeload for 2 weeks hotels, bars restaurants and a commitment to spend staggering amounts of cash with the mainstream tourism providers/beneficiaries

Steve

 

[korky]

I can't understand why Spain doesn't do this, they must be loosing out big time. Me and the wife would qualify for residentia status in Spain if we applied, but I'm not prepared to go down this route because of there aggressive tax regime and inheritance taxes. Even my cousin who has his old age pension and his works pension is paying more tax here than when his pension was taxed in the UK.

They do. It is a lot more expensive than the French one though. Circa 500 euro I think.

 

[korky]

They do. It is a lot more expensive than the French one though. Circa 500 euro I think.

Apologies, I'm sure I read this somewhere on a motorhome forum but I've just been looking for a link with no luck. so maybe not after all. There is a long stay working holiday visa for Spain, but that is different from the French offering, which I will definately be applying for at some point.

 

[Mobilvetta]

Apologies, I'm sure I read this somewhere on a motorhome forum but I've just been looking for a link with no luck. so maybe not after all. There is a long stay working holiday visa for Spain, but that is different from the French offering, which I will definately be applying for at some point.

As I understand it if you work remotely for a UK company you can apply for a Spanish visa to relocate here. Not heard anything about a tourist visa though.

 

[Millie Master]

We have some close friends who own a property over in France and they want to spend 6 months in the UK and 6 months in France, surely not too much of an ask?

We have just heard that not only have they had to supply concise details of all their bank accounts and savings, but now they have also had to be finger printed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[korky]

We have some close friends who own a property over in France and they want to spend 6 months in the UK and 6 months in France, surely not too much of an ask?

We have just heard that not only have they had to supply concise details of all their bank accounts and savings, but now they have also had to be finger printed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah,it's called a Brexit bonus.